Huge KLM rival Emirates launches Amsterdam roadshow to attract pilots

Dubai-based airline Emirates plans to hold a two-day ‘Pilots Roadshow’ in Amsterdam starting on Wednesday to attract pilots to fly its services the Financieele Dagblad reported on Monday.

The carrier, which is the biggest long-haul carrier in the world, hopes to attract between 100 and 150 experienced and technically skilled pilots to strengthen its operations. Emirates held a similar exercise in Amsterdam last year. It has no plans to recruit pilots on a large scale in any other European city, the paper said.

Pilots will be offered an ‘ample and tax-free salary and accommodation’ in Dubai arranged by the airline. Emirates will hold three recruitment sessions for interested pilots in an Amsterdam hotel over the two days.

Emirates announced the Amsterdam recruitment campaign a day after telling Bloomberg news agency that pilot shortages were forcing it to trim frequencies this summer.

Flights

An Emirates spokesman told the FD on Friday that it would reduce flights to and from Orlando, Puket and Kuala Lumpur and scrap some services from from Oslo, Munich and London. Flights to and from Amsterdam and Brussels will be unaffected.

Emirates CEO Tim Clark said the pilot shortages would likely be resolved in the autumn. ‘We’re a tad short of pilots,’ Clark told Bloomberg, adding that the service reductions will be short term and that crew numbers should be ‘alright by September or October.’

Emirates already employs several dozen Dutch pilots. Some joined Emirates after they retired from KLM and Air France. In an interview with the FD last year, several of these said they could advance more quickly working for Emirates than with KLM.

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